Camera test 55
Photography News | Issue 53 | photographynews.co.uk
Performance: exposure latitude
-4EV
-3EV
The scene was metered using the camera’s Evaluative light measurement in manual mode, and then the scene was exposure bracketed by adjusting the shutter speed. The resulting Raws were exposure corrected in Lightroom to give the images shown here.
Exposure latitude was good and much better with underexposure than overexposure. Overexpose by +2EV and the file can be recovered pretty well, although strong highlights still lack any detail, but go over by any more and the results are not acceptable.
With underexposure, the -2EV shot looks almost identical to the correctly exposed file, while the -3EV and -4EV shots also recover well. Fine details look good so provided you are okay with some noise in the shadows, the results are more than acceptable.
-2EV
-1EV
Original image
0
+1EV
+2EV
+3EV
Images The Canon G1 X Mark III has decent exposure latitude in its Raws, especially with underexposure. Overexposure performance is less impressive and even recovering +2EV shots can be an issue in contrasty light.
+4EV
assigned a variety of functions to suit each exposure mode. In terms of physical controls, the rear command dial is quite busy. Push its centre and you bring up the camera’s Q (Quick) menu, then there are four options at north, south, east and west to adjust, for example, drive settings. Finally, the collar rotates and there are eight features that can be assigned to it. If you prefer, much of the camera driving can be done using the touch panel, so here the Q menu can be brought up. Individual items on the Q menu can be turned on or off. Perhaps strangely there are 12 items in the Quick settings layout menu, but only 11 can be set – try the twelfth and the camera won’t have it. Seems you might as well have all 12 available. Push the MENU button and you will see a layout that will be familiar to most Canon users, and this can be navigated via the touchscreen or the rear command control. The G1 XMark III’s autofocusing is very impressive in speed and accuracy. The system locks on rapidly, silently and consistently, and this is no doubt thanks to the camera’s Dual Pixel CMOS AF. Canon does claim an AF speed of just 0.09secs and while I couldn’t test the veracity of that claim, there was no doubt that the G1 X Mark III’s system was very, very responsive. The 49-zone AF system also has a good deal of flexibility, so you can have it working with one zoom, in a 3x3 group or with all 49 zones. The touchscreen adds even
more flexibility. You can touch the screen to focus and to take the shot, and you can touch and drag the focus point while your eye is up to the EVF eyepiece – you can even pick the area of the monitor that you want to be active for this. Personally I prefer an actual joystick, but Canon’s solution is a good close second. The camera’s exposure system proved sure-footed, dealing competently with a wide range of lighting situations. I shot mostly in aperture-priority using Evaluative mode and although I did call on exposure compensation and the star exposure lock button, most of the time the camera delivered good results without meddling from me.
Images The Canon G1 X Mark III sports a very usable control layout with options for customisation, too, while the vari-angle monitor gives a lovely image – and has touch functionality.
Above There’s not much in the way of top-plate controls on the M100.
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